For Immediate Release:
August 14, 2025
WASHINGTON, DC – The Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF) denounces President Trump’s mobilization of the National Guard and other federal police in the District of Columbia’s downtown and neighborhoods. The President has stated that the Guard’s deployment and asserting control over the DC Metropolitan Police Department are to restore law and order in response to high crime rates. There is no crime emergency in DC. The President’s actions are a direct attack on disabled, and majority Black and brown communities,[1] and a disenfranchised city with the highest LGBTQ+ representation in the country.[2] Violent crime in DC fell by 35 percent in 2024 compared to the previous year, and it is now at a 30-year low.[3] DC already has dozens of law enforcement agencies. During President Trump’s press conference announcing the takeover, he repeated his commitment to evict homeless encampments from DC’s streets. These unnecessary, costly, and inhumane actions will disproportionately harm Black, brown, disabled, and transgender people.
“This Administration’s unlawful orders and actions targeting unhoused people under the pretense of crime initiatives are rooted in racism and ableism,” said DREDF’s Interim Executive Director Michelle Uzeta. “Their goal has been clear since before the election – a return to a Christian cis white male-run country, where poor people, immigrants, LGBTQIA+ people, and negatively racialized people – Black and brown folks in particular – are locked up, shuttered away, and/or killed.”
The hostile actions come just two weeks after an Executive Order calling for people with mental illness to be arrested and/or forced into treatment against their will, and a year after the Grants Pass Supreme Court ruling allowing people who are homeless to be fined and jailed for simply existing in public spaces.[4] Attacks on unhoused people are attacks on our broad and diverse disability community. Up to 40% of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD), such as Down syndrome, autism, cerebral palsy, and more, also have mental health conditions.[5] As DREDF and others have stated, the solution is sufficient funding for community-based services and housing, not rounding up homeless and disabled people.[6] In addition, people with disabilities are at a higher risk of experiencing homelessness than non-disabled people due to rising housing costs, the inaccessibility of housing, deep-rooted stigmas, and widespread discrimination.[7] As Congress slashes funding for Medicaid services and housing, it will be difficult for states to warehouse people in institutions. The likelihood of people being sent to privately run prisons, camps, and psychiatric facilities with few safeguards is high.
Make no mistake, like the unlawful occupation of Los Angeles, Washington, DC is a testing ground. This administration will continue rolling out these approaches in cities and states across the country. Disability justice principles call on us all to speak out against the threats and attacks from President Trump and his administration. DC’s more than 700,000 residents, including 77,000 disabled residents[8], are living with increased ICE activity, roving bands of federal agents harassing residents and checkpoints, and instructions from the President to police that they can do whatever they want. Militarization and threats of locking people up do not increase safety and well-being in our communities. The Federal Government must abide by and respect the democratically elected Mayor and Council of DC, who govern their residents based on the Congressionally mandated Home Rule Charter.
DREDF acknowledges that while the President attempts to federalize DC, the District sits on the already stolen traditional and ancestral land of the Nacotchtank (or Anacostans) and neighbors the ancestral lands of the Piscataway and Pamunkey People.
Take Action
DREDF urges all disability community members and allies outside DC to contact their Congressional members. Urge your members to support the residents of DC. Call for oversight and an immediate stop of the unnecessary and costly escalation of federal forces targeting of unhoused and disabled people, and Black, brown and LGBTQ+ communities.
Learn more about DC’s history, the weaponization of crime, and efforts toward DC statehood and a FreeDC. Learn more and support the passage of the Housing Not Handcuffs Act from the National Homelessness Law Center.
# # #
Media Contact
Tina Pinedo
DREDF Communications Director
(510) 225-7726
media@dredf.org
About Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund
Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF), based in Berkeley, California, is a national nonprofit law and policy center dedicated to advancing and protecting the civil and human rights of people with disabilities. Founded in 1979 by people with disabilities and parents of children with disabilities, DREDF remains board- and staff-led by members of the communities for whom we advocate. DREDF pursues its mission through education, advocacy, and law reform efforts, and is committed to increasing accessible and equally effective healthcare for people with disabilities. DREDF supports legal protections for all diversity and minority communities, including the intersectional interests of people within those communities who also have disabilities.
[1] Black, Brown, Asian American and Pacific Islanders comprise over 60% of DC’s demographic. https://www2.census.gov/geo/maps/DC2020/Profiles20/2020_State_Profile_District_of_Columbia.pdf
[2] https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/visualization/lgbt-stats/?topic=LGBT&area=27&compare=percentage#comparison
[3] https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/pr/violent-crime-dc-hits-30-year-low, https://mpdc.dc.gov/dailycrime
[4] White House Executive Order. Ending Crime and Disorder on America’s Streets, July 24, 2025.
[5] https://www.huduser.gov/portal/datasets/ahar.html
[6] https://dredf.org/national-disability-groups-condemn-executive-order-taking-away-civil-liberties/
[7] https://dredf.org/dredf-denounces-supreme-court-ruling-in-city-of-grants-pass-oregon-v-johnson/